


The Innocent Can Never Last

by roy_writes



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Coming of Age, Death, Gen, Growing Up, Parental Roy Mustang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:22:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28595418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roy_writes/pseuds/roy_writes
Summary: Elicia was three when her Daddy broke a promise.Elicia was six when she realized her only memory of her Daddy was breaking his promise to come home early.Elicia was ten when she realized her classmates all had Daddies who loved them and she didn't have a Daddy, but Roy was there for her.Elicia was sixteen when she got a boyfriend. Mama said he was just like Daddy was.Elicia was nineteen when she got engaged. Her Daddy wasn't there to give his blessing to her or give her congratulations.Elicia was twenty-one when she got married. Roy walked her down the aisle. She didn't know it, but her Daddy's spirit was walking with them on her other side.Elicia was twenty-three when she had her first child. She named her son after both of her fathers.Elicia was thirty when she realized she was older than her Daddy could ever be and she cried.Elicia was three when her Daddy died.
Relationships: Elicia Hughes & Gracia Hughes & Maes Hughes, Elicia Hughes & Maes Hughes, Elicia Hughes & Roy Mustang, Elicia Hughes/Original Male Character, Gracia Hughes/Maes Hughes, Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang
Comments: 22
Kudos: 65





	The Innocent Can Never Last

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aeoleus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeoleus/gifts), [BorkMork](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BorkMork/gifts).



> This is sad, I'm sorry.
> 
> Title comes from Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day.
> 
> Please don't listen to Build Me A Daddy by Luke Bryan while reading this. It will hurt you.
> 
> Aeoleus inspired this fic with their FMA posting on tumblr (ta1k-less)  
> BorkMork's fic Hello, reminded me of this after I posted this, and i want to gift this to them bc their works are amazing!

Elicia was confused. Daddy promised he'd come home early tonight, and Daddy always kept his promises. What made this promise different? Did he really have so much work he wouldn't be coming home tonight? It was only three days past her birthday, and Daddy's work was already more important than her? Was it because she was a big girl now? Was it her fault Daddy wasn't keeping his promise?

She hugged Roy's leg and looked up at him. "Will Daddy come home when he finishes his important work?"

Roy looked sad at that. Why did Roy look so sad? Did he know it was her fault Daddy was going to be late?

"Elicia, your Daddy isn't coming home." Roy's voice was soft, like he was about to cry.

"But he promised he'd come home early, and Daddy always keeps his promises!" She was getting angry and confused now. What had happened to stop Daddy from coming home?

Roy hugged her. "I'm sorry, Elicia."

A week later, Mama was putting her in her matching black dress, and Daddy still wasn't home. Mama and Roy said Daddy wasn't coming home, and Elicia didn't understand why. Daddy had promised. 

Mama said the box had Daddy in it, but why would they put Daddy in the box and the box under the dirt? He wouldn't be able to finish his important work and come home if Daddy was being buried.

"Mama, why are they putting dirt on Daddy?" Her voice cut through the silence. Why was everybody being quiet anyways? Did they have to be quiet when they buried Daddy? Roy and Riza and the other people from Daddy's work were in their uniforms, so maybe it was another work thing?

"They're buring him, Elicia." Mama looked like she wanted to cry. Mama had been crying a lot. Elicia heard her cry every night when Mama thought she was asleep. 

"But Daddy can't do his work if they bury him! He said he had important work to finish!"

Mama picked her up and hugged her tight as she called out for her Daddy. They needed to stop burying him! He promised to come home early, and then he had work that stopped him, and now Mama was crying and Roy was crying and Daddy wasn't coming home early because he was getting a lot of dirt thrown on top of the box he was in. 

Why did Daddy break his promise?

//////////

Elicia was six and Daddy still wasn't home. She understood more than she had before. She understood Daddy was dead and couldn't be alive. She understood that nobody had found his killer, although Roy said that the killer had been dealt with during the eclipse three years ago. 

Elicia took a slice of cake to her Daddy every year, and every year, the cake remained untouched until she left and the squirrels ate it. 

Every year Elicia forgot something else about her Daddy. She couldn't remember how his hugs and kisses felt. She couldn't remember the sound of his voice. She couldn't remember any of the hundreds of promises he'd kept. She just remembered him breaking that one promise and then never seeing him again. 

//////////

Elicia was ten years old and the only kid in her class that didn't have a Daddy. 

Mama kept family pictures up with Daddy in them, and Roy came over a lot to tell stories with Riza, but it wasn't the same. She'd never get to have her Daddy back. Her Daddy who'd broken one promise of coming home early by never coming home. Her Daddy who never broke his promises until that night. Her Daddy who only got three birthdays with her. Her Daddy who she only had one memory of.

A memory of a broken promise being buried six feet down.

//////////

Elicia was sixteen years old when she got a boyfriend. His name was Neil Anderson and he was a quiet boy who loved with all his heart. Mama said he was just like Daddy was.

Three months after they started dating, Neil asked Elicia where her father was, he wanted to meet them. She reluctantly took him to the flower shop and led him to bring flowers to his grave.

They sat there for hours talking. Elicia told him what had happened. Her Daddy was a soldier. He was murdered in a phone booth just a few days after her third birthday. It was the only memory she had of him she could remember clearly. 

She didn't realize it was dark until something poked her arm and she noticed it was Hayate. Roy and Riza were running towards her and Roy wrapped her in a hug. 

"Your Mom said you left after breakfast and you never came back for dinner. It's almost midnight. We've been looking all over for you!" Roy was freaking out about Elicia and checking for injuries.

Riza was threatening Neil who was crying.

"Riza, that's Neil! He's not going to hurt me. Please stop threatening him."

Riza nodded at her, but Elicia noticed both Roy and Riza keeping eyes on him while Hayate happily walked around everybody.

Mama kept hugging her when she got back home. She kept telling her she was scared a soldier would appear like the night Daddy broke his promise.

Roy and Riza brought Neil back to his parents, who were just as worried about him.

//////////

Elicia was nineteen when Neil proposed to her. He did it on a winter night with a full moon at a little park. 

Daddy wasn't there to hug her or give her his congratulations. Daddy wouldn't be there to help them plan the wedding. Daddy would never walk her down the aisle.

Two months later, Elicia appeared in Roy's office at Central Command. 

//////////

Elicia was twenty-one when Fuhrer Roy Mustang walked her down the aisle at her wedding. She didn't know it, but her Daddy's spirit was walking beside her on her other side.

She danced with Roy instead of her Daddy that day, but she realized that Roy was a father to her. He'd been there when Daddy couldn't.

Neil changed his last name to Hughes. 

"It would be an honor to take your last name. Your father sounds like a great man and I'd love to have the name he gave you."

At twenty-one, Elicia Hughes was married to Neil Hughes (Anderson).

//////////

Elicia was twenty-three when she had her son. She and Neil agreed to name him after both of her fathers.

Roy Maes Hughes. 

Her Daddy's spirit kissed the baby on the forehead. 

Roy was the first person, besides Elicia and Neil, to hold the baby. He cried when they told him the babies name. 

//////////

Elicia was thirty and she brought her son to her Daddy's grave and told him stories she'd been told of a man who she only had a single memory of. She told her son about the broken promise and how she didn't have her Daddy, but she had Roy, his namesake, there for her.

She was thirty when her seven year old son said that according to the dates on the tombstone, her Daddy was twenty-nine when he died. 

Elicia was thirty when she realized that she had lived longer than her Daddy ever could, and she cried.

//////////

Elicia was three when she learned promises could be broken.

Elicia was three when her Daddy was shot in a phone booth and never came home early.

Elicia was three when her Daddy died.

**Author's Note:**

> Would anybody like a part 2 about Hughes being a guardian angel to Elicia and watching her grow up?


End file.
